As we are controlled by material nature do we really have free will?

Answer Podcast

Now some of Prabhupada’s statements which say that the soul is fully controlled by the external mental energy. Do they indicate that we have no free will? In fact, I have seen a picture in the Bhagavad Gita.
Of a person being pulled by ropes, puppets. If I am merely a puppet. Yeah, I will come to this point.
We are puppets but we can choose our puppeteer. Choose who is going to be pulling our strings. Basically, the free will is an innate characteristic of the soul.
The soul’s characteristic is consciousness. And consciousness, say right now you are thinking of what I am saying. You can choose to think of something else.
I am speaking and I am trying to attentively focus on what I am speaking. But I can think of something else. So, in that sense, where my consciousness goes, that’s up to me.
So, I do have free will to pay attention to what you are saying. I have free will not to pay attention to what you are saying. Similarly, you have free will at that level at least.
I don’t have the free will to fly like a bird. You don’t have free will to fly like a dolphin. But we do have free will.
So, let me complete this point. Basically, when we talk about free will, we have unlimited freedom within a limited framework. That means, if there is a horse which is tied to a pole.
Now, as long as the radius of the rope, within that the horse can go left, right, top. It can dance over there. It can stampede its feet.
It can just sit down and go to sleep. But it cannot go beyond the circumference that is made by the radius of the rope. Have you heard Vyacheshek, who is the president of Viscon Silicon Valley, talk? Yeah, what is it about? This topic.
He uses the analogy that when you board a plane to fly, you have limited free will, what you do as a passenger. But the overall route and your safe arrival is beyond your control. Correct.
Yeah, definitely. So, you could say that the scope of our free will is limited. But the free will itself is not taken away.
So, when a Prabhupada says that we are under the control of material energy, he is talking more in terms of the illusion of independence that we have. Okay. So, we do have some free will but we are not absolutely independent.
I will just give a further explanation for this. You see, in the Bhagavad Gita in the third chapter, there is a verse which says, anyone who thinks I am the doer, that person is in illusion. प्रक्रते क्रियमानानि गुड़े कर्मानि सर्वशान। अहंकार विमुदात्मा कर्ताहमिति उच्छते। One who thinks I am the doer is simply deluded by arrogance, by ego.
That’s what 3.27 says. But then the same Gita at the end, when it is concluding, it tells Arjuna in 18.63, now you deliberate deeply and do as you desire. Yes, that’s a good point.
If we didn’t have free will, he wouldn’t be saying that. Yeah, and then after that, Arjuna also says, I will do your will. करुष्यवच्नम्तव And if you see, the whole Bhagavad Gita was spoken to persuade Arjuna to do something.
Arjuna was thinking I should not fight and Krishna said that you should do your dharma, which is in this case is fighting. So, it was obviously meant to get him to do something. And if he doesn’t have free will, then what is the point of persuading someone? Yes, the entire dialogue becomes redundant.
So, now, what it means is, going to the image of we being pulled by the strings, we are controlled. But as I said, we can choose our controller. We cannot be completely free from control, but we can choose who will control us.
We can choose, say within the material nature, there are three modes, goodness, passion, ignorance. So, say, if I want to study and I go to a library, then I see everyone else is studying seriously, I feel inspired to study. I focus on studying.
But, say, I want to study and I go to my hostel, room. And say, there in my room, other students are playing video games over there. See, I also feel like playing a video game.
Or, if I just go into my own room, I lock the door, I turn off the light, the light is on, but I lie down on the bed, comfortable bed, and there I try to study. You know, being on the bed, I just feel like sleeping. So, see, basically, I have the choice, should I go to library, should I just go to some video game center, or should I go to my bed.
Once I go there, to a large extent, what I do thereafter will be influenced by the circumstance. So, we could say the first situation, library is like goodness, going to a place where video games are being played, video game center is like passion, it’s lying on the bed is ignorance. So, it is, we could say, that we are forced to act as we choose to desire.
So, if I desire to go into a particular situation, then afterwards, it’s almost as if I am forced to act. That situation will have its own force. So, another example could be, say, if I am in the ocean.
And this is just hypothetical, but in the ocean also there are different currents. Some current is moving eastwards, some moving westwards, some moving north, some moving south. So, now, if I put myself in a particular current, I will be swept away by that.
But still, if I am, I can see the current is going this way, this current is going this way, and I am right now at a point, I can choose, should I go here, should I go here, should I go here. Now, once I go there, I will get swept away. But where I go is up to me.
So, like that, if you see in the image in the Bhagavad Gita where there are three puppeteers pulling, there are three of them. Now, I can choose which one to be pulled by. So, the more we choose, say, goodness, then within that itself our knowledge increases.
Sattvaat sanjayate jnanam. The mode of goodness produces knowledge. And when knowledge comes, then we can better understand our conditions.
And then through that awareness of our condition, then we can further choose. To do those actions will liberate us further. So, you know, freedom is never taken away as effectively as it is taken away by giving the illusion of freedom.
If I feel I am free while I am being bound, then I will not even strive to feel free. But if I understand, oh, I am bound, that’s like if somebody is alcoholic and they want to drink alcohol, they will not even realize they are addicted. But if somebody is trying to recover from alcoholism, and then they are pulled, I don’t want to drink, I resolve not to drink, but I am being pulled towards it.
Then they understand, hey, there is something within me which is binding me, I have to fight this. Sorry, sorry. You can come here if you want.
There is something within me which is pulling me. And I don’t want to be pulled. That means I am bound.
I have to do something to resist. So, if a person is simply giving in to the desire, they may not even realize how forceful the desire is. But when they start resisting the desire, then they understand, oh, this is really forceful.
I have to break free. So, that means in the lower modes, in the modes of passion and ignorance, we are very much controlled. But we don’t even realize that we are controlled.
And if you had experienced that from being a small child, it may seem natural to you. Yes. If your father was an alcoholic, if your mother was an alcoholic, drinking is natural to you.
Yeah, but then if you get some disease and the doctor tells you, give up alcohol. Oscar Wilde, he said, giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I have done it hundreds of times.
That’s true. So, it’s only when we try to give up something, then we realize that it’s not that easy. So, basically, among the modes of passion, ignorance, goodness, we have some capacity to choose.
And the more we choose, say, goodness, the more we can become free. So, our free will is right now limited. But the more we use it right, the more free will we can access more and more.